Thursday, April 13, 2017

Lent calendar prayer and reflection for 13 April - Maundy Thursday

If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should
wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example so that you may copy
what I have done to you.

John 13: 1-15

Sister Yvonne Mwalula lives and works in Mbala, in the
northern province of Zambia. She belongs to the congregation of the
Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The Sisters used to run a hospital and
school, but with the advent of HIV and AIDS they felt called to reach
out to those who never came to the hospital because of the stigma
attached to their illness.

Sister Yvonne continues to be inspired
by the founder of her order, Father Victor Braun, who urged the first
Sisters to “go to places that nobody wants to go. You do what others
don’t want to do, especially if it is for the poor and the most
vulnerable of your community.”

The Sisters continue to live out
this charism day by day by going to the remote areas of the district, by
seeking out those who may be forgotten or marginalised, metaphorically
washing the feet of all those they meet, bringing Christ’s love and hope
with them.

Maundy Thursday prayer

God of
all humility, you who washed your disciples’ feet at the Last Supper,
inspire us always to wash one another’s feet, and to seek out those
seemingly without hope. Amen.